House OKs additional $1b in energy assistance
Program criticized as regionalized
WASHINGTON -- The House yesterday approved an additional $1 billion to help low-income families heat and cool their homes, squeezing in the extra cash just days before the official end of winter and halting a long-running political feud over the program -- until the next budget battle.
New England lawmakers were pleased that Congress shifted more money to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps qualified residents pay heating and air-conditioning bills. But they said the legislation is temporary relief for families facing growing fuel prices -- and a federal government that has been increasingly reluctant to give needy families home energy aid.
''It's frustrating. It's becoming so regionalized and divisive. It's as if it's a lightning rod with no foundation," said Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a Maine Republican who is the original sponsor of the amendment the House approved, 287 to 128.
While the $1 billion, already less than what regional lawmakers had been promised last year, will be helpful to New England residents right away, ''we're worried about next winter," said Representative Charles Bass, Republican of New Hampshire.
LIHEAP funds have been frequently stalled and cut in the past, as Southern and Western lawmakers expressed concern about a federal program that tends to favor cold-weather states. The program offers low-income families in warm-weather regions help with their air-conditioning bills, but most funds slated for LIHEAP's ''emergency" fund typically go to residents of states with harsh winters.
The program has never been fully funded; Congress and the Bush administration, eager to pare the federal budget, have often made LIHEAP a target for cuts. Last year, for example, Congress appropriated $2 billion for LIHEAP through a defense bill and planned to allocate another $2 billion in emergency funds in the same legislation. But when lawmakers stripped out a controversial provision to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Senator Ted Stevens -- an Alaska Republican and a leading supporter of ANWR drilling -- took out the LIHEAP money.
Stevens said revenue from oil and gas leases from the drilling would have provided money for LIHEAP.
Under pressure from Snowe and other New England lawmakers, Senate leaders agreed to take up separate legislation earlier this year to provide the additional $2 billion. But the vote was never scheduled, and Snowe -- worried that New Englanders would run out of heating oil before winter was over -- negotiated a compromise to spend another $1 billion, borrowing that amount from the 2007 appropriation.
LIHEAP foes still fought that effort. Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, read a list of Maine projects on the Senate floor and suggested that Snowe might give up some federal money for those projects in exchange for LIHEAP money. But Northeasterners prevailed. The Senate also narrowly passed a hike in next year's LIHEAP spending up to its authorized level of $5.1 billion.
''Families across Massachusetts can sleep easier tonight knowing they'll have some relief during the cold winter months," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who cosponsored the amendment for the increase with Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island.
But since Congress must also vote to actually release the money, there is no guarantee that the $5.1 billion will ever be funded.
Massachusetts has not yet run out of LIHEAP funds to give to some 135,000 Bay State families who receive it, said Phil Hailer, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. But he said New England still faces weeks of cold weather, and people are still applying for the funds.
Twelve states, including Maine, have exhausted their LIHEAP funds, according to Snowe's office.
While this winter has been mild, energy prices have shot up. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, the average household heating oil bill has risen from $627 to $1,474, natural gas expenses shot from $465 to $1,000, and propane costs soared from $736 to $1,286. 